Face Transplant Recipient Meets Wife of Man Who Gave Him New Life

A Minnesota woman who agreed to allow her late husband’s face to be donated for transplant, recently met the beneficiary of her generosity.

In October, sixteen months after Andy Sandness had undergone transplant surgery, Lilly Ross met the recipient of the face that had belonged to her husband, Calen “Rudy” Ross, according to the New York Post.

Ross met Sandness at the Mayo Clinic where Sandness endured 56 hours of surgery last year which yielded the clinic’s first successful face transplant.

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When Ross met Sandness, tears welled in her eyes and she embraced him tightly.

Prior to their meeting, Ross had been worried that Sandness would look similar to her husband, who had committed suicide in 2016 when she was eight months pregnant with their son, Leonard.

Without Calen’s eyes, forehead or strong cheeks, Ross found that Sandness did not look like her husband.

Instead, she was pleased to see a man whose life had been changed through Calen.

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Sandness attempted suicide in 2006, holding a rifle below his chin and pulling the trigger. While the gunshot destroyed most of his face, Sandness survived.

For 10 years, he lived with a scarred, patchwork face and a prosthetic nose that had a tendency to fall off.

Sandness’ new face gave him the confidence to no longer hide from mirrors or people who stared.

“It made me proud,” Ross said of the 32-year-old Sandness. “The way Rudy saw himself … he didn’t see himself like that.”

Now that Sandness has recovered from his surgery, he is making up for the years he spent keeping to himself, the Chicago Tribune reported.

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“I wouldn’t go out in public,” he said. “I hated going into bigger cities. And now I’m just really spreading my wings and doing the things I missed out on — going out to restaurants and eating, going dancing.”

Sandness has also been promoted in his work as an oilfield electrician.